This story about neighborliness and community will resonate, though it doesn’t go as far as it needs to.
When some mischievous (and none-too-neat) young bunnies and their older sister, Lettuce, hear the news that rats are moving into their apartment building, they are excited, but none of the other animal tenants share their joy.
The others—a sheep, two pigs, polar bears, a couple of yaks, and Granny Goat—voice their objections to rats in terms most adult humans would use as well: “RATS! BIG, DIRTY, SMELLY, THIEVING, DANGEROUS RATS [who will] bury us alive in RAT POOP!” When the assembled tenants go to meet the titular “new neighbors” despite their escalating fears, the animals are very pleasantly surprised. Bertram and Natasha, each a “small, tidy, friendly-looking rat,” invite them all in for “homemade cake.” Bertram, the consummate host, manages to politely put his guests at ease by saying: “We know that rats aren’t everyone’s idea of the perfect neighbors!” The animals look properly abashed. This timely story about prejudice toward newcomers preceded by bad press is leavened by its comic, full-bleed, double-page illustrations that are full of action, speech balloons, and humorously dressed animals (yaks in bathrobes, Bertram in a natty bow tie and vest) as well as text that employs a cumulative effect as the animals join the parade downstairs. It is unfortunate that Bertram actually apologizes about moving in and that the two rats are so comically vanilla in their aspects—none of the animal bigots must overcome their unreasonable fear of difference.
This story about neighborliness and community will resonate, though it doesn’t go as far as it needs to. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Feb. 26, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5247-8996-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: Nov. 20, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2018
Hee haw.
The print version of a knee-slapping cumulative ditty.
In the song, Smith meets a donkey on the road. It is three-legged, and so a “wonky donkey” that, on further examination, has but one eye and so is a “winky wonky donkey” with a taste for country music and therefore a “honky-tonky winky wonky donkey,” and so on to a final characterization as a “spunky hanky-panky cranky stinky-dinky lanky honky-tonky winky wonky donkey.” A free musical recording (of this version, anyway—the author’s website hints at an adults-only version of the song) is available from the publisher and elsewhere online. Even though the book has no included soundtrack, the sly, high-spirited, eye patch–sporting donkey that grins, winks, farts, and clumps its way through the song on a prosthetic metal hoof in Cowley’s informal watercolors supplies comical visual flourishes for the silly wordplay. Look for ready guffaws from young audiences, whether read or sung, though those attuned to disability stereotypes may find themselves wincing instead or as well.
Hee haw. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: May 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-545-26124-1
Page Count: 26
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A light dose of natural history, with occasional “EWWW!” for flavor
Having surveyed worms, spiders, flies, and head lice, Gravel continues her Disgusting Critters series with a quick hop through toad fact and fancy.
The facts are briefly presented in a hand-lettered–style typeface frequently interrupted by visually emphatic interjections (“TOXIN,” “PREY,” “EWWW!”). These are, as usual, paired to simply drawn cartoons with comments and punch lines in dialogue balloons. After casting glances at the common South American ancestor of frogs and toads, and at such exotic species as the Emei mustache toad (“Hey ladies!”), Gravel focuses on the common toad, Bufo bufo. Using feminine pronouns throughout, she describes diet and egg-laying, defense mechanisms, “warts,” development from tadpole to adult, and of course how toads shed and eat their skins. Noting that global warming and habitat destruction have rendered some species endangered or extinct, she closes with a plea and, harking back to those South American origins, an image of an outsized toad, arm in arm with a dark-skinned lad (in a track suit), waving goodbye: “Hasta la vista!”
A light dose of natural history, with occasional “EWWW!” for flavor . (Informational picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: July 5, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-77049-667-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tundra Books
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2016
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